I’m here to talk about the Word of the Year, but first I think I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about these cinnamon rolls. On a whim, I made them for Christmas morning, then again for New Year’s Day (today).  They have changed my life, in a very bad way because now [...]

I’ve always been a great sky lover.  It’s always changing.  Always different. Always beautiful.
It’s one of my favorite things in the whole world.  When things are making me crazy, I like to look up at the sky.
Kind of ironic, being grounded by the sky.

The Monkey Family spent the last week in Florida’s panhandle, visiting with family and recharging our batteries.  The Boy and The Girl spent several days with their grandparents, and The Daddy Monkey and I had our first ever kid-free getaway, in seven years of parenting.  It was pretty nice.  The photo from Friday’s this moment [...]

In Amanda’s words: This Moment – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

In Amanda’s words: This Moment – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Day two of my personal retreat was just as good as day one, in its own way.  In the morning, The Daddy Monkey took the kids to his parent’s house for a swim, and I had a quiet house all to myself. Inspired by yesterday’s meditation retreat, I took the morning to clean and declutter [...]

Having had such a difficult time lately, The Daddy Monkey suggested that I “take the weekend off.”  With that in mind, I made a commitment to recharge my own batteries and restore my sense of balance over this weekend.
I began by getting some much needed acupuncture on Thursday evening, to help soothe my over-taxed adrenals.  [...]

Yesterday, as the Daddy Monkey was tucking the kids into bed, I stepped into our back yard to enjoy a glass of wine and watch the three small owls that have appeared every evening for the past few weeks. Each night at dusk, they call to each other, fly from tree to tree, and eat [...]

It’s hard to believe that summer is already upon us.  In some ways (the culinary ones), I am delighted that summer has arrived.  Temperatures in the mid-90’s make me not so glad that summer has arrived.
It’s about this time of year that I begin to get twitchy, thinking about how much worse the heat is [...]

Oh hello there.  I’ve missed you.  I am still here.
We went tomato picking at our local farm today.  One dollar for a full plastic bag.  That equates to about 14 pounds of tomatoes for a dollar.  How could I pass that up?! I spent a total of five dollars on 73 pounds of tomatoes, which [...]